Urban Exploration - Safety and Legality

Safety and Legality

Urban exploration is a hobby that comes with a number of inherent dangers. For example, storm drains are not designed with human access as their primary use. They can be subject to flash flooding and bad air. There have been a number of deaths in storm water drains, but these are usually during floods, and are normally not Urban Explorers.

Many old abandoned structures feature hazards such as unstable structures, unsafe floors, asbestos, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, exposed electrical wires and entrapment hazards.

Asbestos is a long term health risk for urban explorers, along with breathing in contaminants from dried bird feces, otherwise known as pigeon lung, a form of hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Urban explorers may use dust masks and respirators to alleviate this danger. Some sites are occasionally used by substance abusers for either recreation or disposal and there may be used and/or infected syringe needles en route, such as those commonly used with heroin.

The growing popularity of the activity has resulted not just in increased attention from explorers, but also from vandals and law enforcement. The illicit aspects of urban exploring, which may include trespassing and breaking and entering, have brought along with them critical articles in mainstream newspapers.

In Australia, the website of the Sydney Cave Clan was shut down by lawyers for the Roads and Traffic Authority of New South Wales, after they raised concerns that the portal could "risk human safety and threaten the security of its infrastructure." Another website belonging to the Bangor Explorers Guild was criticized by the Maine State Police for potentially encouraging behavior that "could get someone hurt or killed." Likewise, the Toronto Transit Commission has also used the Internet to crimp Subway Tunnel Explorations, going as far as to send Investigators to various Explorers' homes.

Jeff Chapman, who authored Infiltration, stated that genuine urban explorers "never vandalize, steal or damage anything." The thrill comes from that of "discovery and a few nice pictures." Some Explorers will also request permission for entry.